Decriminalise Drug Possession: An Interview With Former AFP Commissioner Mick Palmer
Calls for reforms to the approach Australian governments take to illicit drugs are growing stronger. The idea that personal drug use and possession should be treated primarily as a health and social issue, and not a criminal offence, is starting...
It’s Time to Raise the Age of Criminal Responsibility
Right now, children as young as 10 can and are being arrested and locked up in youth detention centres across the country. And this puts Australia out of step with the majority of other nations around the globe where the age of...
High Price User-Pays Policing: The New Tactic to Shut Down Music Festivals
Despite a court ruling last week that the northern NSW music festival Bohemian Beatfreaks could go ahead, the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) was able to push the event interstate by charging the organisers exorbitant user pays policing fees that had the...
Countering Street Harassment: An Interview with Sexism in the City Guest Dr Bianca Fileborn
Crime rates in NSW are at a forty year low. According to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures, over the 24 month period ending in March this year, only two of the seventeen major crime categories were on the rise....
Removing Criminal Sanctions for Drug Use: An Interview With Australia21’s Dr Alex Wodak
“We call on Australia’s federal, state and territory governments to treat drug use primarily as a health and social issue and to remove criminal sanctions for personal use and possession,” begins think tank Australia21’s recently released fourth report on illicit...
Fighting Police Corruption: An Interview With Former Queensland Sergeant Rick Flori
In January 2012, a pair of Queensland police officers arrested Noa Begic on the street in the Gold Coast. Charged with public nuisance, the 21-year-old chef was handcuffed and then taken to the basement of the Surfers Paradise police station. With...
Victorian Liberals Vow to Shut Down Life-Saving Injecting Facility
In what can only be described as a terribly misguided move, Victorian Opposition leader Matthew Guy has announced that if he wins the state election on Saturday, he’ll be shutting down the newly-opened North Richmond Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in...
NSW Police Are Illegally Strip-Searching Aboriginal Kids
It’s recently come to light that not only is the NSW Police Force doubling down on its use of strip-searches, but officers are also carrying out this invasive practice upon Aboriginal children as young as 11 years old. Aboriginal Legal...
“The Final Nail”: Block Redevelopment to Expand With No Aboriginal Housing
The controversial redevelopment of the Block in Redfern is now set to include a higher student accommodation tower, while there’s no funding whatsoever for the proposed affordable housing units for Aboriginal families. A NSW Department of Planning and Environment report released...
Guards Who Have Sex with Inmates Now Face Prison
The NSW government passed new laws last week making it a crime for prison guards to have sex with inmates. The move follows revelations mid-year regarding a number of female corrections officers who’d allegedly been engaging in sexual relations with...
